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They built webgl components and a K8s cluster with GPUs just to generate random artwork for use on their website and release graphics? Please tell me there was
by ugh123 3y ago
They built webgl components and a K8s cluster with GPUs just to generate random artwork for use on their website and release graphics? Please tell me there was a more pressing use case for that kind of infrastructure and code slinging.
Are they just bored over there?
Edit: i'm not trying to rag on JetBrains and I generally LOVE their products. But this work seems way over-engineered and not a great use of resources, unless its the graphic designer building all that stuff :)
- dwallin 3y agoExcept human beings are not optimization machines and the best way to get great people to bring all of themselves to work is to allow them to be all of themselves at work. The best and brightest have diverse interests and if they get bored they can just move on. The cost to the company to let them mess around with generative AI for a couple of weeks is far cheaper than having to replace them if they jump ship elsewhere. Plus, this builds internal expertise with a new area of technology that may or may not end up relevant to their business in the future.
- paulryanrogers 3y agoMaybe saving money over paying artists for new release and blog art?
- rurururu 3y agoAs Jetbrains is originally a Russian company, here's one Russian proverb reflecting on what's told in this story: - Хороший понт дороже денег. An English equivalent would be: - Making a splash is better than cash.
- kjksf 3y agoCzech, not russian.
- neoromantique 3y ago:)))
- akaike 3y agoIt's Russian not CZech
- yedpodtrzitko 3y agoFounders are Russian, company is founded in Czech Republic, so... you're both right.
- seanmcdirmid 3y agoThey had to suspend the R&D they did in Russia due to Ukraine, but I'm surprised they were able to keep it over there for so long given the other perils of having employees over there (that law which forced most American tech companies to close their R&D centers a decade or so ago).
- reisse 3y ago> that law which forced most American tech companies to close their R&D centers a decade or so ago Given that Intel and Nvidia had huge R&D centers in Russia until the middle of 2022, I highly doubt such law ever existed. Unrelated, but I also doubt US (as a country) won more than it lost from forcing them to withdraw from Russia, because Huawei literally hired whole divisions with all the expertise and inside knowledge.
- seanmcdirmid 3y agoIt was definitely a loss, but necessary. This is the event I was referring to: https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2014/12/12/google-closes-russia-office-after-internet-crackdown.html https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2014/12/12/google-closes-russia-off... Russia can arrest local employees if they don’t like what their parent company is doing.
- reisse 3y ago> Russia can arrest local employees if they don’t like what their parent company is doing. That is a real risk for maybe few very high-level expat managers, but certainly not a risk for average programmer Ivan. Besides, as if Google cared about countries arresting local employees - they have multiple offices in China, from all countries! Make of it what you want, but the piece of anecdata I have from a person working at Russian Intel office in 2014 is that after Crimean referendum US government unofficially recommended big US companies to cease operations in Russia. Some of them agreed, like Google, because it was easy for them due to a small footprint, some of them, as Intel, deemed it unrealistic back then.
- usrnm 3y agoIn the same way as Yandex is Dutch and Kaspersky actually used to be British for some time. Where the holding company is registered is not that important these days
- systemvoltage 3y agoIt's cool that they have $$$ to spend on stuff like this. I think we should encourage it if it doesn't make their products worse. This thing is decoration. It's useless. And that's why it's fine.
- foota 3y agoWhen I saw this I thought it was neat that there's a company that just lets people mess around on fun stuff like this.
- code_runner 3y agoTotally unrelated subscription price increases incoming…
- seanmcdirmid 3y agoTotally unrelated to employee retention, skills development, and possible future projects?
- Zetobal 3y agoEver thought about a role in middle management?
- darklycan51 3y agoBored or maybe scared that they are losing market to VSCode
- Alupis 3y agoVSCode is hardly in the same market as the entire Jetbrains suite except maybe Webstorm... VSCode, while used for other things, mainly is a web front-end IDE.
- Hasnep 3y agoThat feels very inaccurate, the C/C++ extension for VSCode has 50 million downloads for example. Just anecdotally, most of the developers I know use VSCode for non-webdev things as well. I think you're underestimating the popularity of VSCode in general.
- Banditoz 3y agoGuess it depends on the business? I work at a Java shop and everyone uses IntelliJ. A few people use VSCode for UI stuff but most also just use IntelliJ.
- starttoaster 3y agoI use vscode for Golang backend dev work. I even have a subscription to Idea, but it just never took to me. I put in the work to customize Idea to basically be like Goland, and I still just kind of prefer vscode. Also use vscode for more generic things like CI scripts, Ansible, etc.
- Alupis 3y agoJetbrains' approach to IDE's tends to be language-specific. So, taking IDEA (for Java) and making it work for Golang is probably not as slick as it should be. GoLand[1] is part of the Jetbrains suite, and should be used for Golang development. [1] https://www.jetbrains.com/go/ https://www.jetbrains.com/go/
- rurp 3y agoI have been using Jetbrains products for a number of years and like them overall but the development over time has been really disappointing. The improvements tend to be very minor each year and usually come with new problems. Many of the changes are just UI reshuffles for no good reason which is annoying, and they haven't been very good about supporting new technologies. It feels like a company that started off great but then began coasting on their lead and has largely lost focus. The products are still very good for the most part, but most updates end up being a waste of time.
- jgalt212 3y ago> Many of the changes are just UI reshuffles for no good reason which is annoying I'm still angry over the MS Office ribbon.
- latchkey 3y agoThe latest release fixed an open issue I had for 4 years. It was to make the hover for Typescript types look more pretty. They were motivated to finally fix this cause someone else did it for vscode. I'm just glad they fixed it and their products are the best in the industry.
- gustavus 3y agoThere's an interesting article that explains why that is the way it is https://www.theregister.com/2011/11/04/bofh_2011_episode_17/ https://www.theregister.com/2011/11/04/bofh_2011_episode_17/
- codetrotter 3y ago> they haven't been very good about supporting new technologies Depends on your language. For me it has been great. Been using CLion for several years now with the Rust plug-in, and recently they began work on a dedicated IDE for Rust :D
- getoffmycase 3y agoYeah I primarily use DataGrip and Rider. I use DataSpell with the R plugin, and Pycharm is a godsend when I have to program something in python. I don’t do it very often and really appreciate pycharm’s ease of use. Rider is a great, lightweight alternative to visual studio 2022. And honestly DataGrip is perfection and shouldn’t be touched.
- tadfisher 3y agoThey're exercising their own tools and library code to produce this. Tools like Datalore (Jupyter competitor) would be next-to-useless if no one at the team uses them to develop some kind of product.
- TylerE 3y agoMaybe they shouldn't try to have 12,345 different products then? The core product line isn't really in a great spot right now. I'm seriously considering switching away from IDEA for the first time in a decade due to how bad the performance has gotten.
- csmiller 3y agoWhat alternative(s) are you considering?
- matsemann 3y agoDoing this is just an alternate form of advertising advertising. Post go viral, they get eyes on their products. Additionally, it's good that the engineers there use their tools for real-life projects that aren't all just building an IDE. For instance python is in this weird state now that for web dev pycharm is great, but for remote capabilities they've been lacking a good work flow. So them exploring and feeling the pains themselves is good.
- michael1999 3y agoIf I were a broad tools vendor, I'd very much want an internal team to ship something real using the new hotness to make sure we find ways to support it. How else can they understand the needs of a new market?